The Paradox of Motion

Abstract

Physical reality is always in a unique state, and its presence has no duration. Motion, as passing from one state of reality to another, requires at least two states. If physical reality is always in a unique state, there is no movement in it. For motion to exist, there must then be another dimension of reality—where unicity is replaced by plurality, i.e., by its negation—by an observer-created non-physical reality, an abstract representation of reality, where past states remain present and motion is possible. Motion then requires retaining the past, and retaining the past is possible only in the observer’s representation of reality—in what Kant called phenomenal reality.